Surviving the Beach… With Toddlers
Are last vacation to the beach which ended two weeks ago seems like it was already forever ago! The kids and I have been running around getting ready for back to school now. Which is so bittersweet, one more year older, but at the same time, I’m at the point where they are driving me nuts! Anyone else out there feel my pain?!?
We recently stayed at Disney’s Vero Beach Resort on our last vacation. This resort is about two and half hours away from Disney and it’s on the Atlantic side. First let me say it was one of the most gorgeous beaches in Florida I have been to. The sand was full of sea shells and the water was so blue. The resort itself had just the right amount of touch of Disney too.
Usually we do a Disney trip annually, but this year we wanted to relax. Which led us to choose Disney’s Vero Beach resort. This had been our first ocean beach trip ever. I like to be as prepared as I possibly can, and since this was our first time, I was trying to make sure I didn’t miss a single thing. From that this is what I’m taking home as big wins for our beach vacation.
Location
if you are taking small children to the beach, it means you pretty much are taking a whole suitcase to the beach with you as well.If it is an option I would recommend staying at a hotel or property that is on the beach, and requesting a room as close to the beach as possible. Our room was about 30 yards from the beach, and we struggled. My 3 year old was trying to learn how to use flip flops for her first time, and it took her about 25 min to walk the short distance ( word of advice, practice flip flops at home before hand)
Wagons and Strollers
Being that you’re in sand your regular wagon wheels and stroller wheels are a no go through the sand, and you end up almost killing yourself trying to push or pull a wagon. We didn’t use either walking to the beach, I had the beach bag with the toys and the bag with all the misc. stuff and I had to carry the 18 month which left my husband with some towels, the cooler bag, pop up tent, outdoor blanket and the 3 year old. They do make wagons for the sand, I did see one at target recently for $70 dollars, that was the cheapest I saw. Next time I think I would pick one up!
What’s in the bag
My favorite items that made life so much easier were:
- Baby Powder, when we were done at the beach it got rid of all the unwanted sand in flash!
- Beach Toys, Great places to buy them, Target, 5 below, dollar tree, Walmart. Word of advice you can never have enough shovels, because you kids will fight to death over them
- Sunscreen, currently Sun Bum is my favorite. It smells wonderful and is free of any toxic chemicals
- Waterproof phone pouches ( Be able to take all those beach photo’s without the fear of dropping your phone in the ocean)
Food
I brought a cooler bag to the beach. We were able to walk up to the pool and order lunch, but we ended up eating a late breakfast or a late lunch and bringing abundant amount of snacks with us to the beach. The cooler bag was packed with gatorades, water, uncrustables, pirate booty, goldfish, granola bars.
Outdoor Blanket
Our Outdoor Blanket was the best thing we could’ve brought for us to sit on at the beach. It is waterproof and was so easy to just shake the sand off when we were done. The blanket folds up, and has a carrying strap so you could carry it on your shoulder. We did bring a popup shelter too, that folds up nice and can be carried on your shoulder, we bought ours from Costco a couple years ago. You could check there, we use ours for our oldest daughters soccer games, tournaments, and local beach trips. We didn’t end up using the shelter because our kids never left the water and the sand, but its a good item to have on hand in case.
Another victory for our family! Our family of six survived the ocean! And can not wait to get back there again soon!!
